David Hobbs (racing driver)

David Hobbs

Hobbs in the pitlane of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the 2005 United States Grand Prix
Born	David Wishart Hobbs (1939-06-09) 9 June 1939 (age 85) Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1967–1968, 1971, 1974
Teams	BRM, Honda, McLaren
Entries	7
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1967 British Grand Prix
Last entry	1974 Italian Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 1962–72, 1979, 1981–85, 1987–89 Teams Team Lotus Engineering Lola Cars Ltd Standard Triumph Maranello Concessionaires John Wyer Automotive Roger Penske/Kirk F. White Equipe Matra-Simca Grand Touring Cars/Ford France EMKA Racing John Fitzpatrick Racing Joest Racing Richard Lloyd Racing Best finish 3rd (1969, 1984) Class wins 1 (1982)
NASCAR Cup Series career
2 races run over 1 year
First race	1976 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Last race	1976 Champion Spark Plug 400 (Michigan)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0

David Wishart Hobbs ^[1] (born 9 June 1939) ^[2] is a British former racing driver. He worked as a commentator from the mid 1970s for CBS until 1996, Speed from 1996 to 2012 and NBC from 2013 to 2017. In 1969 Hobbs was included in the FIA list of graded drivers, a group of 27 drivers who by their achievements were rated the best in the world. ^[3] Hobbs was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009. ^[4]

Driving career

Hobbs was born, in Royal Leamington Spa, England, just months before the outbreak of World War II. His career as an international racing driver spanned 30 years at all levels including in sports cars, touring cars, Indy cars, IMSA, Can-Am and Formula One. He has participated in the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona. He made twenty starts in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, finishing in 8th place at the first attempt in 1962, following with a pole position and a best finish of third (in 1969 and 1984) to his credit.

Hobbs was due to make his F1 Grand Prix debut for Tim Parnell Racing at the 1965 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand, but a serious road accident put him in hospital for three weeks. ^[5]

In 1971 Hobbs won the L&M 5000 Continental Championship driving for Carl Hogan out of St. Louis, Missouri, in a McLaren M10B-Chevrolet. He won five of the eight rounds that year at Laguna Seca, Seattle, Road America, Edmonton and Lime Rock. ^[6] Twelve years later, he would claim the 1983 Trans-Am Series championship as well. He also made two NASCAR Winston Cup starts in 1976, including leading two laps at the 1976 Daytona 500 ^[7] and drove a race in the 1979 International Race of Champions.

Television commentator

Hobbs provided commentary for Formula One and GP2 races (alongside Bob Varsha and former Benetton mechanic Steve Matchett) until 2013, the SCCA Valvoline runoffs, and parts of the 24 Hours of Daytona. He has also worked for CBS on its Daytona 500 coverage, working as both a colour commentator and a feature/pit reporter from 1979 until 1996, and then moved to Speed in 1996 working as a colour commentator and then moved to NBCSN in 2013. ^[8] He also worked for ESPN, serving as an analyst for their Formula 1 coverage from 1988 until 1992 working with Chris Economaki, John Bisignano and Bob Varsha.

Other appearances

Hobbs appeared in the 1983 comedy film Stroker Ace , playing a TV race announcer. He also appeared in the Cars 2 movie, which premiered in June 2011, as announcer "David Hobbscap", a 1963 Jaguar from Hobbs' real life hometown in England.

Personal life

Hobbs's father, Howard Frederick Hobbs, was an Australian-born engineer and inventor who developed an early version of the automatic transmission, known as the Mecha-Matic. Colin Chapman had this transmission fitted to his Lotus Elite racecars. ^[9] Hobbs lives in Vero Beach, Florida with his wife, Margaret, with whom he has two sons, Gregory and Guy. In 1986, Hobbs opened a car dealership, David Hobbs Honda, in Glendale, Wisconsin, which was sold to the Van Horn Automotive Group in March 2023. ^[10] His youngest son, Guy, worked for Speed as a pit reporter on their sports car coverage. He is the grandfather of current racing driver Andrew Hobbs.^{[ who? ]}

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	WDC	Pts
1967	Bernard White Racing	BRM P261	BRM P60 2.1 V8	RSA	MON	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR 8		CAN 9	ITA	USA	MEX					NC	0
	Lola Cars	Lola T100	BMW M10 2.0 L4							GER 10 1
1968	Honda Racing F1	Honda RA301	Honda RA301E 3.0 V12	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA Ret	CAN	USA	MEX				NC	0
1971	Penske-White Racing	McLaren M19A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA 10					NC	0
1974	Yardley Team McLaren	McLaren M23	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT 7	ITA 9	CAN	USA	NC	0
Source: [11]

Notes

• ^1 – Formula 2 entry.

Non-Championship Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1964	Merlyn Racing	Merlyn Mk7 (F2)	Ford Cosworth SCA 1.0 L4	DMT	NWT	SYR	AIN Ret	INT	SOL	MED	RAN
1966	Reg Parnell Racing	Lotus 33	BRM P60 2.0 V8	RSA	SYR 3	INT	OUL
1968	Bernard White Racing	BRM P261	BRM P101 3.0 V12	ROC 9	INT 6	OUL 6
1970	Team Surtees	Surtees TS5 (F5000)	Chevrolet 5.0 V8	ROC	INT Ret	OUL
1971	Hogan Racing	McLaren M10B (F5000)	Chevrolet 5.0 V8	ARG	ROC	QUE DNQ	SPR	INT	RIN	OUL	VIC
1973	Hogan Racing	Lola T330 (F5000)	Chevrolet 5.0 V8	ROC Ret	INT Ret
1974	Hogan Racing	Lola T332 (F5000)	Chevrolet 5.0 V8	PRE	ROC	INT DNS
Source: [11]

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Pts	Class
1962	Peter Berry Racing Ltd	Jaguar Mk II 3.8	D	SNE ovr:? cls:6	GOO ovr:4 cls:4	AIN ovr:3 cls:3	SIL ovr:4 cls:4	CRY	AIN	BRH ovr:5 cls:5	OUL					18th	8	6th
1968	Malcolm Gartlan Racing	Ford Falcon Sprint	D	BRH ovr:4 cls:2	THR ovr:2 cls:2	SIL Ret	CRY Ret†	MAL	BRH	SIL ovr:1 cls:1	CRO ovr:2 cls:2	OUL ovr:3 cls:3	BRH	BRH ovr:2 cls:1		9th	32	3rd
1970	Pierre de Plessis	Chevrolet Camaro Z28	D	BRH	SNE	THR	SIL Ret	CRY	SIL	SIL	CRO	BRH	OUL	BRH	BRH	NC	0	NC
Source: [12]

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
1962	Team Lotus Engineering	Frank Gardner	Lotus Elite Mk14-Climax	GT 1.3	286	8th	1st
1963	Lola Cars Ltd.	Richard Attwood	Lola Mk6 GT-Ford	P +3.0	151	DNF	DNF
1964	Standard Triumph	Rob Slotemaker	Triumph Spitfire	P +3.0	272	21st	3rd
1965	Standard Triumph Ltd.	Rob Slotemaker	Triumph Spitfire	GT 1.3	71	DNF	DNF
1966	Maranello Concessionaires	Mike Salmon	Ferrari Dino 206S	P 2.0	14	DNF	DNF
1967	Lola Cars Ltd. Team Surtees	John Surtees	Lola T70 Mk.III-Aston Martin	P +5.0	3	DNF	DNF
1968	J.W. Automotive Engineering Ltd.	Paul Hawkins	Ford GT40 Mk. I	S 5.0	107	DNF	DNF
1969	J.W. Automotive Engineering Ltd.	Mike Hailwood	Ford GT40 Mk. I	S 5.0	368	3rd	2nd
1970	J.W. Automotive Engineering Ltd.	Mike Hailwood	Porsche 917K	S 5.0	49	DNF	DNF
1971	Roger Penske Kirk F. White	Mark Donohue	Ferrari 512M/P	S 5.0		DNF	DNF
1972	Equipe Matra-Simca Shell	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Matra-Simca MS660C	S 3.0	278	DNF	DNF
1979	Grand Touring Cars Ltd. Ford Concessionaires France	Vern Schuppan Jean-Pierre Jaussaud	Mirage M10-Ford Cosworth	S +2.0	121	NC	NC
1981	EMKA Productions Limited	Eddie Jordan Steve O'Rourke	BMW M1 Gr.5	Gr.5	236	DNF	DNF
1982	John Fitzpatrick Racing	John Fitzpatrick	Porsche 935/78 Moby Dick	IMSA GTX	329	4th	1st
1983	John Fitzpatrick Racing	John Fitzpatrick Dieter Quester	Porsche 956	C	135	DNF	DNF
1984	Skoal Bandit Porsche Team	Philippe Streiff Sarel van der Merwe	Porsche 956B	C1	351	3rd	3rd
1985	John Fitzpatrick Racing	Jo Gartner Guy Edwards	Porsche 956B	C1	366	4th	4th
1987	Joest Racing	Sarel van der Merwe Chip Robinson	Porsche 962C	C1	4	DNF	DNF
1988	Blaupunkt Joest Racing	Didier Theys Franz Konrad	Porsche 962C	C1	380	5th	5th
1989	Richard Lloyd Racing	Steven Andskär Damon Hill	Porsche 962C GTi	C1	228	DNF	DNF
Source: [13]

Indianapolis 500 results

Year Car Start Qual Rank Finish Laps Led Retired 1971 68 16 169.571 30 20 107 0 Crash FS 1973 73 22 189.454 30 11 107 0 Flagged 1974 73 9 184.833 10 5 196 0 Flagged 1976 33 31 183.580 14 29 10 0 Water Leak Totals 420 0

Starts 4 Poles 0 Front row 0 Wins 0 Top 5 1 Top 10 1 Retired 2

NASCAR

(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Winston Cup Series

NASCAR Winston Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	NWCC	Pts	Ref
1976	DeWitt Racing	73	Chevy	RSD	DAY 34	CAR	RCH	BRI	ATL	NWS	DAR	MAR	TAL	NSV	DOV	CLT	RSD	MCH	DAY	NSV	POC	TAL												NA	0	[14]
	Donlavey Racing	9	Ford																				MCH 17	BRI	DAR	RCH	DOV	MAR	NWS	CLT	CAR	ATL	ONT

Daytona 500

Year	Team	Manufacturer	Start	Finish
1976	DeWitt Racing	Chevrolet	16	34

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
1981	JPS Team BMW	Allan Grice	BMW 635 CSi	6 Cylinder & Rotary	113	7th	2nd
1982	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	A	157	5th	5th

References

1. FIA Year Book of Automobile Sport 1975. Patrick Stephens Ltd. 1975. white p. 37. ISBN   0-85059-195-3.
2. H. H. Pitt and M. N. Wicks, The Pitt Family of Payneham (Adelaide, 1977)
3. F.I.A. Year Book of Automobile Sport, P.S.L. Publications Limited., London, 1969.
4. David Hobbs at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
5. "FORMULA ONE - HOBBS: The North American Swing". Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
6. Trenton Evening Times, 7 September 1971, Page 37.
7. "David Hobbs 1976 Winston Cup Results – Racing-Reference.info". Archived from the original on 29 April 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2007.
8. Hobbs, David (September 2012). "In Racing, Broadcasting: Timing is Everything". Road & Track . 64 (1): 94.
9. "Howard Frederick Hobbs and His Transmission Heritage". 2020.
10. "Plymouth-based van Horn Auto Group acquires David Hobbs Honda in Glendale". 9 March 2023.
11. "David Hobbs – Biography". MotorSportMagazine. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
12. de Jong, Frank. "British Saloon Car Championship". History of Touring Car Racing 1952-1993. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
13. "All Results of David Hobbs". RacingSportCars. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
14. "David Hobbs − 1976 NASCAR Winston Cup Results". Racing-Reference. Retrieved 22 January 2019.

External links

• SpeedTV bio
• David Hobbs Honda
• David Hobbs driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• David Hobbs – Test Driver Jaguar XJ13 – Building the Legend

Sporting positions
Preceded by John Cannon	US Formula A/F5000 Champion 1971	Succeeded by Graham McRae